Previews

DC Universe Online

Spiffy:

Certainly tons of good ideas going into it.

Iffy:

Hard to get excited till we get to actually see the game.

With DC Universe Online's big reveal at Sony's E3 press conference earlier this week, the superhero MMO subgenre is starting to feel a bit thicker. You shouldn't be surprised, however, to learn that a more earnest reveal is happening at the San Diego Comic Con next week, where it'll be fully playable to all comers. If you're truly curious and willing to make the trip, you'll be able to see it for yourself. So get the Dr. Scholl's and Odor Eaters ready.

Laying in wait at Sony Online Entertainment's E3 space, however, were some candid developers, armed with an eagerness to talk about their long-in-development game, as well as a presentation video heavy with buzzwords and concept art. So feel extra lucky that they were indeed eagerly candid.

Creative Director Chris Cao sums up the game's focus with some enticing comparisons. "This is going to play just like Hulk Ultimate Destruction, Spider-Man, whatever you want to do," he tells us. "It is that kind of action game. It's just that the month to month, it plays like an MMO." This means there will be tangible progression, periodic updates, and, of course, loot, in some form. But Cao seems to feel that DCU is informed by a certain purity of purpose. "What we've done is taken the best of each, made it much more fun, got rid of that grind," he says. Bold indeed to attempt to rid the genre of the periodic drip of achievement that's played a large part in sustaining it throughout the years, especially in a big-budget title. But it will certainly be intriguing to see how it works out.

Classless

Rather than using strict classes to determine what sort of character you'll play, DCU will spread the big choices across a few different categories. The biggest appears to be your "power theme." Cao rattled off a few of the dozen that will be included: "...ice, fire, mental, planar..." Then comes your power source, the specific focus of your power: "...like your eyes, or knives, or dual pistols... how you want to make that power manifest itself."

The game will include a few shortcuts for character creation, apparently intended for players whose visions of what they want to play equates to drawing a close parallel to a comic book legend. "Let's say you want to be like Batman. You can create an 'Inspired By' character. Click on 'Inspired By,' and then suddenly, we fill all that stuff out for you. It gives you a starting point where, 'I want to be like Batman? OK, well, I got martial arts as my power, I use my hands, I have gadgets, and I'm an acrobat.'"